Demand for offline meetings fuels post-pandemic growth in non-holiday travel segment

(Representative Image/AP)

After two years of virtual meet-and-greet sessions, companies are once again taking employees and dealers to meetings and conferences at local and international destinations.

Staffing firm TeamLease HRtech said that companies have restarted this practice because they understand that the experience employees gain is more insightful and impactful when it’s a physical event. “We usually take a group of 50 employees and they have travelled to Mumbai, Bengaluru and Jodhpur for meetings,” said Sumit Sabharwal, CEO of TeamLease HRtech, the human resources management-focused arm of the company.

Industry conferences and company retreats are now scheduled more regularly with COVID-induced restrictions removed, and organisations have started their corporate travel schedules in full flow, said Rikant Pittie, co-founder, EaseMyTrip.

Chirag Gupta, CEO of travel firm Deyor, which has sent over 15 of its employees to destinations like Ladakh, Sikkim, Singapore and Dubai this year, said that in the last two years MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions) travel was hit hard due to strict travel restrictions but now companies like theirs are warming up to in-person engagements.

Offline meetings

Sectors such as consulting, pharma, FMCG and fintech are actively engaging with their employees offline, said Sabina Chopra, co-founder and chief operating officer, Yatra.com.

Travel platforms like Thomas Cook and SOTC are seeing more demand coming from IT, consultancy, banking & finance and SMEs (small and medium enterprises).

Unsurprisingly, in comparison to pre-pandemic times, there has been a significant increase in the number of conferences by the IT sector, said Damandeep Singh, general manager, Karma Lakelands, a resort in Manesar, outside Delhi. “Sectors such as manufacturing, FMCG, IT, automobiles, technology and construction are seeing an upward trend,” he added.

Hospitality firm OYO said that recovery in business travel is led by SMEs, traditional business houses and conglomerates, startups, travel management companies as well as film production houses.

It seems to be a more broad-based trend. Companies from the finance, legal, banking and media sectors are booking private villas for their employees’ getaways, said Devendra Parulekar, founder, SaffronStays, a company offering private vacation homes.

“We have also noticed movement from the renewable energy sector,” said Chander Baljee, chairman and managing director of the Bengaluru-based Royal Orchid & Regenta Hotels.

Increased group sizes

As company offsites, training sessions and participation in physical conferences pick up, noted online travel firm ixigo's Co-founder & Group CEO, Aloke Bajpai, group sizes are also going back to pre-COVID levels. To be sure, smaller batches have not witnessed much change, with some travel firms saying that group size of 60-70 passengers from a company has been the same pre- and post-pandemic. In larger groupings, though, the firms say the group size which pre-pandemic was around 2,500 has moved up to 3,000 now.

Thomas Cook operated groups ranging from 50 to 2,000 this year, while SOTC operated groups from as many as 4,000 to Thailand to 1,000 to Singapore between January and August this year.

Popular destinations

Goa is witnessing a hike in demand for business travel, said Chopra. When it comes to international destinations, she said countries offering visa on arrival and those that have eased COVID restrictions are preferred destinations. This includes Azerbaijan, Thailand, Vietnam, Bali and Turkey.

Sporting events are the other enticements—Australia is emerging as a popular destination this year due to the T20 World Cup 2022, as is Qatar thanks to the FIFA World Cup.

While international travel remains a challenge, demand from corporates for overseas destinations remains strong.  “Despite a surge in airfares and hotel rates coupled with visa challenges, we are still seeing an uptick in demand for international business travel. But the mix is skewed towards domestic,” said Indiver Rastogi, president and group head, global business travel, Thomas Cook (India) & SOTC.

On-ground costs have gone up, so companies have increased spending by 10-15 percent on MICE travel from pre-COVID levels, said S D Nandakumar, president and country head, corporate tours, SOTC Travel.

Companies are also opting for cruise travel for international destinations. “Cruises from Europe, Singapore and UAE are back in demand. We have recently managed a group of over 600 delegates for Rome on cruise,” said Meera Charnalia, senior vice president and head, MICE, Thomas Cook (India) Ltd.

Recovery in business travel

Corporate bookings have increased 35 percent post-pandemic, said Pittie.

“We are seeing a growth of almost 150 percent in the number of conferences being booked versus pre-COVID levels,” said Karma Lakelands’ Singh. He expects the share of corporate travel in overall business to increase 5-10 percent this year.

India’s skies opened late and there have been challenges on the supply side, yet there is a rapid rebound of MICE business, said Charnalia. “We expect to be back to pre-pandemic levels by the end of this month.”